baggage's Diaryland Diary

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Kiss and suck

Jetblue offers direct TV to its customers; meaning that from my seat, I can tune in to several channels-one of which is VH1.

Unfortunately or fortunately, VH1 has aired nothing but 80s rock videos so far. And although I initially thought this would offer an amusing ride into my adolescence, I�m finding myself embarased to watch the videos on the screen.

The hair styles are innane, the camera angles are sophomoric and the fashion! Dear lord�it must have been some deep seated internal genius that allowed me to to ignore most of the fashion cues between 81 and 89.

The Kiss videos are the worst. I was never a fan of Kiss and, after watching 30 minutes of Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, I know why: they suck. Dear god, do they suck. These are men who became millionares by staying in a suspended adolescence. The band wore their inmaturity with pride and, I�m proud to say, I didn�t give a fuck then-and I absolutely don�t give a fuck now.

Def Leppard�s video for "Photograph" clearly suffered from a too much cheese-but I could at least stomach it. SkidRow�s "I Remember You" still sounded decent-and Scotty Hills guitar lead shines even now.

But standing out with a sense of artistry was The Police�s "Every Breath You Take" and U2s "Still Haven�t Found What I�m Looking For."

How lucky those two bands are/were: They wrote wonderful music with engaging lyrics, wonderful melodies and impeccable pop musicianship. Their videos reflected a sort of genius-leaving all the clich�s of rock imagery to lesser bands like, well, Kiss. Clearly, they had other, better, things on their mind when they created these little 3 or so minutes of pop artistry. How lucky they are to have the insight at that stage of their career to create art and not Kiss.

9:24 a.m. - 2004-02-15

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